SOE Community Webcast: EQ2 Players Sneak Preview [Archive]

Amnerys

02-07-2012, 05:24 PM

<img src="http://www.station.sony.com/images/community/features/webcast.jpg" /> <img src="http://www.soe.com/images/community/webcast/EQII_Webcast_020912.jpg" width="450" height="252" /> The Beta version of the new and improved EQ2 Players site is nearly ready to launch! Join host Linda “Brasse” Carlson as she sits down with SOE’s Clif Bate (Director of Commerce Services & Web Presence) and Abby Watt (Associate Web Producer) to get a sneak peek at what we’ve been working on. Join us on Thursday, February 9, 2012, at 4:30 p.m. US Pacific Time* on <a title="http://www.twitch.tv/sonyonlinetv" href="http://www.twitch.tv/sonyonlinetv" target="_blank">Twitch TV!</a> The webcast is expected to last about 20 minutes.If you have questions you’d like to see answered, Brasse will be collecting them from this thread. You do not want to miss Abby and Clif answering them live! Come take a drive with us in this week's webcast! See you on <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/sonyonlinetv" target="_blank">Twitch TV!</a> *<a title="http://www.timezoneconverter.com/" href="http://www.timezoneconverter.com/">Convert to your local time</a>

Caela

02-07-2012, 06:20 PM

Oooh, shiny!I would like to know what sort of privacy controls are in place. Will our characters be available "all or nothing" or can we choose which bits of info are available - ie, my spells and AA's can be seen, but my leveling history and gear can't be seen.

Brigh

02-08-2012, 05:06 AM

Will you please set our privacy default to hide all? I can't believe the old settings of EQ2Players allowed everyone to see, especially when you transfer servers I think it resets it.

Catria

02-08-2012, 05:08 PM

Some of the fan sites have had access to the data feeds in the past month or so, but I have not seen one yet that shows item discoveries. Before the free-to-play revamp there were player rankings for most server first item discoveries and most world first item discoveries, and the original EQ2Players even kept track of which items you discovered and when. Will this functionality be a part of the new EQ2Players?

Dellmon

02-08-2012, 09:11 PM

<cite>Amnerys wrote</cite><blockquote>If you have questions you’d like to see answered, Brasse will be collecting them from this thread. </blockquote>What will be done to ensure that the new EQ2 Players will receive ongoing support and maintenance so that it keeps pace with future game evolution, is accurate and current, and leaves players with a positive experience unlike past versions which have been full of problems and left languishing for many years? What is SOE doing to ensure that history does not repeat itself?What will the SOE EQ2 Players site have that fan-created sites and apps, which are also leveraging the data feeds, won’t have? Will there be any exclusive content or data on the official site that fan sites won’t have access to?

Onorem

02-08-2012, 09:21 PM

Will we be able to see alts for players who don't have them set to be hidden, assuming that setting is an option?

Xxenophobia

02-09-2012, 09:08 AM

My recommendation would be as follows:Keep stats reguardless of the server transfers. Logic: When you rank wealth you don't reset my total wealth on the leader board with only the plat that earned on the new server. You don't reset my quest counts with the only quests completed on the new server. You don't reset my HP or Power with only the increases that I obtained on the new server.

feldon30

02-09-2012, 10:59 AM

<cite>Onorem wrote:</cite><blockquote>Will we be able to see alts for players who don't have them set to be hidden, assuming that setting is an option?</blockquote>The ability to hide or 'Opt-out' characters has been available since December using the 'EQ2Share' setting in-game.An additional in-game option will be added soon to allow Alts to be "discovered" when viewing each Character. The default setting is that Alts are NOT discoverable. You actually have to turn this on for each Character if you want all your Alts to be discoverable from all of your Characters. It takes a moment to wrap your brain around how this works.For instance, if I have 3 alts: <ul><li>Feldon </li><li>Feldyren </li><li>Felodic</li></ul> Let’s say I have Alts Opt-in enabled for Feldon but not Feldyren, and Felodic is completely Opted-out for both Character and Alts. If I look up Feldon, I will see Feldyren listed as an alt. If I look up Feldyren, I will not see Feldon listed. Neither search will reveal that I also have Felodic on my account. <cite>Lyssia@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote>Some of the fan sites have had access to the data feeds in the past month or so, but I have not seen one yet that shows item discoveries. Before the free-to-play revamp there were player rankings for most server first item discoveries and most world first item discoveries, and the original EQ2Players even kept track of which items you discovered and when. Will this functionality be a part of the new EQ2Players?</blockquote>Item Discovery information is available to us (also Achievements), but we're not displaying them at launch. Soon [tm]. I can't speak to what SOE did during server mergers. I'm always an advocate of keeping data, even if it is archival and refers to a server that no longer exists.

Cyliena

02-09-2012, 11:32 AM

<cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Lyssia@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote>Some of the fan sites have had access to the data feeds in the past month or so, but I have not seen one yet that shows item discoveries. Before the free-to-play revamp there were player rankings for most server first item discoveries and most world first item discoveries, and the original EQ2Players even kept track of which items you discovered and when. Will this functionality be a part of the new EQ2Players?</blockquote>Item Discovery information is available to us (also Achievements), but we're not displaying them at launch. Soon [tm]. I can't speak to what SOE did during server mergers. I'm always an advocate of keeping data, even if it is archival and refers to a server that no longer exists.</blockquote>That's what I'm curious about.. what happened to item discoveries. I've been on Everfrost since 2008 and, prior to December 2010 when Blackburrow moved into us, my main had 135+ server discos and ~15-20 worldwide discos. Did the merges completely trash those achievements for us?edit: Looking at the list of who is being interviewed I just realized that that question will never be answered, simply because they wouldn't even know the answer. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Oh, well. So second question.... when is the "beta EQ2Players" finally being released?

Lantis

02-09-2012, 03:12 PM

Item discovery information is available in the public data feeds, however it is a bit unreliable due to issues created by server mergers.Privacy: right now you can hide your character from the in-game setting, as was posted. Alt privacy is a separate issue. It was recently discussed between SOE devs and third party devs using the public data feeds, and SOE's stance should please most people. I have no idea how EQ2Players will handle it however, but I suspect it might be similar to how the data feeds will.Personally, I think setting the whole character as "hidden by default" would kinda turn EQ2Players (and any third party service) into a completely useless thing, since the majority of people wouldn't even know you could toggle that. If you are worried about secrecy, then you should have no trouble knowing how or where to go to hide everything. It's not as if there is anything dangerous displayed by default - about anything there can be seen by anyone examining you in-game. Other things such as your alts however would be a different story IMHO, as they CAN be sensitive info, unlike wether you have 200 or 2000 Str on your character.EDIT: I see Feldon actually disclosed what we had been talking about with SOE recently regarding alts. So, there you go <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Tesarra

02-10-2012, 02:46 PM

For those of us who missed the webcast, will it be reposted somewhere, like the SOE YouTube channel?

DarkFallingOne

02-10-2012, 08:34 PM

<cite>Tesarra wrote:</cite><blockquote>For those of us who missed the webcast, will it be reposted somewhere, like the SOE YouTube channel?</blockquote>I missed it too(working). Is there anywhere I can see/listen to it?

Peogia

02-10-2012, 09:08 PM

<cite>Amnerys wrote:</cite><blockquote><img src="http://www.station.sony.com/images/community/features/webcast.jpg" /> <img src="http://www.soe.com/images/community/webcast/EQII_Webcast_020912.jpg" width="450" height="252" /> The Beta version of the new and improved EQ2 Players site is nearly ready to launch! Join host Linda “Brasse” Carlson as she sits down with SOE’s Clif Bate (Director of Commerce Services & Web Presence) and Abby Watt (Associate Web Producer) to get a sneak peek at what we’ve been working on. Join us on Thursday, February 9, 2012, at 4:30 p.m. US Pacific Time* on <a title="http://www.twitch.tv/sonyonlinetv" href="http://www.twitch.tv/sonyonlinetv" target="_blank">Twitch TV!</a> The webcast is expected to last about 20 minutes.If you have questions you’d like to see answered, Brasse will be collecting them from this thread. You do not want to miss Abby and Clif answering them live! Come take a drive with us in this week's webcast! See you on <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/sonyonlinetv" target="_blank">Twitch TV!</a> *<a title="http://www.timezoneconverter.com/" href="http://www.timezoneconverter.com/">Convert to your local time</a> </blockquote>Did this ever happen?there is nothing on your channels about it<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/soevideos" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/user/soevideos</a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/EQ2Videos" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/user/EQ2Videos</a>

Caela

02-10-2012, 09:21 PM

It happened - I watched it live.

Thelone

02-10-2012, 11:02 PM

Over 2 months late and we get a peek. How on earth could you blow a date that horribly and not even communicate what the new date was going to be? Sigh. You guys are awesome pros. All I really care about hearing from SOE is when the new site will be available so that I can view my character stats again, and share them with friends. Since I was at work during the preview, I missed whether or not a date was given for when the My Characters feature will come back in a usable state. Or is it still just-= COMING SOON =-?

Krowpa

02-11-2012, 04:51 AM

First, I have to say I do not understand any earthly reason anybody would want or need the information that the EQ2 Players (and now EQ2U site) has to offer. Honestly - I just don't get it. I never used it and see no point in it, so for me, it is a waste of resources, as I am guessing it is to the majority of EQ2 players (though I could be wrong - maybe all of them are just jonesing everyday to see there AA reflected on an out-of-game website). After all, how many people actually use the forums, EQ2 Wire, or any other out of game resource (except for quest hints, maps, etc.).That said - I really like to role play my characters. I don't want them judged by this information, and I don't want everybody to know where they live. I didn't realize I could opt out of having this information put out there until I stumbled across it on EQ2 Wire. Honestly, this should have been made opt-in to start with. If not that, at least everybody who plays should have been told the extent of information being put out there, along with instructions for turning it off. As it is, maybe this information doesn't hurt anybody, but I can think of a lot of ways it could be used for "nefarious purposes" (as quoting the press release for in-game safety).Happy adventuring!

Felshades

02-11-2012, 06:15 AM

<cite>Brigh wrote:</cite><blockquote>Will you please set our privacy default to hide all? I can't believe the old settings of EQ2Players allowed everyone to see, especially when you transfer servers I think it resets it.</blockquote>I liked that.Let me see if that "new to eq2 halp" guy applying to my guild was full of it or not(could see if he had other level 90s)

Felshades

02-11-2012, 06:17 AM

<cite>Onorem wrote:</cite><blockquote>Will we be able to see alts for players who don't have them set to be hidden, assuming that setting is an option?</blockquote>I don't want it to be an option.There's another particular game out there*coughs* where people do entirely too much trolling on low level characters, on both the forums and in game channels, and there's no way to find out who they actually are, so there's no accountability for those actions.Link all their alts on eq2players and we can find out who you are so we don't have to deal with you anymore. Also, wtb account wide ignore.

Felshades

02-11-2012, 06:20 AM

<cite>Lantis@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Item discovery information is available in the public data feeds, however it is a bit unreliable due to issues created by server mergers.Privacy: right now you can hide your character from the in-game setting, as was posted. Alt privacy is a separate issue. It was recently discussed between SOE devs and third party devs using the public data feeds, and SOE's stance should please most people. I have no idea how EQ2Players will handle it however, but I suspect it might be similar to how the data feeds will.Personally, I think setting the whole character as "hidden by default" would kinda turn EQ2Players (and any third party service) into a completely useless thing, since the majority of people wouldn't even know you could toggle that. If you are worried about secrecy, then you should have no trouble knowing how or where to go to hide everything. It's not as if there is anything dangerous displayed by default - about anything there can be seen by anyone examining you in-game. Other things such as your alts however would be a different story IMHO, as they CAN be sensitive info, unlike wether you have 200 or 2000 Str on your character.EDIT: I see Feldon actually disclosed what we had been talking about with SOE recently regarding alts. So, there you go <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>No, if you want your alts hidden you should have to go in there and toggle them hidden like you had to before.

Felshades

02-11-2012, 06:28 AM

<cite>Krowpa wrote:</cite><blockquote>First, I have to say I do not understand any earthly reason anybody would want or need the information that the EQ2 Players (and now EQ2U site) has to offer. Honestly - I just don't get it. I never used it and see no point in it, so for me, it is a waste of resources, as I am guessing it is to the majority of EQ2 players (though I could be wrong - maybe all of them are just jonesing everyday to see there AA reflected on an out-of-game website). After all, how many people actually use the forums, EQ2 Wire, or any other out of game resource (except for quest hints, maps, etc.).That said - I really like to role play my characters. I don't want them judged by this information, and I don't want everybody to know where they live. I didn't realize I could opt out of having this information put out there until I stumbled across it on EQ2 Wire. Honestly, this should have been made opt-in to start with. If not that, at least everybody who plays should have been told the extent of information being put out there, along with instructions for turning it off. As it is, maybe this information doesn't hurt anybody, but I can think of a lot of ways it could be used for "nefarious purposes" (as quoting the press release for in-game safety).Happy adventuring!</blockquote>It should be opt out. Not in.I want to know who the main of that trolling little jerk nugget is so I know who I'm dealing with. Who to actually flat out ignore since I can't do it on an account basis yet. I want to know if that know it all jerk actually has the experience he says he does, and I can get a general idea by finding out what guild his characters are in and what gear he has on. It's not a guarantee, but its a start.Those "nefarious purposes" when referring to in game safety are referring to keeping your account safe. Aka, no one but you is logging into it. A "nefarious purpose" would be some doof stealing your password somehow, then taking all your coin and selling it(RMT) or selling the characters themselves on like ebay(theres actually a website that does it, ebay shuts them all down as they find them. I'm not mentioning the site here in the forums for obvious reasons).There's nothing nefarious about someone finding out what house in what city your in game character lives in, what your gear looks like or what level/class/guild you're in.Showing alts, however, is great for ratting out the moranz that think they're hot stuff but in fact, are just full of hot air. If you simply *must* have that secret alt, you're probably intelligent enough to figure out how to not show it, just like before.The blow hard braggarts are generally the dumb ones spamming on a low level dork around alt, and not blocking their profile from view, and their main is actually a really junky geared 90 with zero raid experience.The alt viewing was one thing that we had here that put eq2 players above and beyond World of Warcraft's Armory. I can't link any of those characters in their Armory with their alts... I want to know who the main of that level 1 rogue spewing profanities in trade is so I can put them on my personal "do not deal with" list and/or report them to their guild leader.I actually have a funny story about that. Had someone try to report me to my guild leader once. I was on an alt. I'd relogged my main, get a tell from someone complaining about someone named Reshaari in my guild. I'm like ok... hear the story. Then "you know that's my alt and you're just reporting me to myself?" Guy logged. Was great. >.>

WanyenII

02-11-2012, 06:45 AM

Disagree. Entirely.If you are experiencing a social breakdown by dysfunctional people playing the game, ignore and report them then move along. Don't hunt them down, because at the end of the day what are you going to do? Be smarter than them? Perhaps there are more compelling options if you are on a PVP server, but there aren't many of those folks around (proportionately speaking).That being said, my characters are my characters. Some days, I want to be less needed than I can sometimes feel, so I'll hideout and do my own thing with otherwise unguilded and otherwise unassociated characters. I don't need ya hunting me down so we can do this one thing really quick, that then turns into a two or three hour ordeal that I wasn't in the mood to do in the first place. It's like leaving my primary phone off or on silent. Don't bother me if I cant or won't be bothered. The people that would need to get a hold of me know how -- because I was explicit about letting them know how and when, not because they sifted through my garbage and found the phone bill showing my other number.Opt in is appropriate.

CorpseGoddess

02-11-2012, 06:58 AM

<cite>WanyenII wrote:</cite><blockquote>Disagree. Entirely.If you are experiencing a social breakdown by dysfunctional people playing the game, ignore and report them then move along. Don't hunt them down, because at the end of the day what are you going to do? Be smarter than them? Perhaps there are more compelling options if you are on a PVP server, but there aren't many of those folks around (proportionately speaking).That being said, my characters are my characters. Some days, I want to be less needed than I can sometimes feel, so I'll hideout and do my own thing with otherwise unguilded and otherwise unassociated characters. I don't need ya hunting me down so we can do this one thing really quick, that then turns into a two or three hour ordeal that I wasn't in the mood to do in the first place. It's like leaving my primary phone off or on silent. Don't bother me if I cant or won't be bothered. The people that would need to get a hold of me know how -- because I was explicit about letting them know how and when, not because they sifted through my garbage and found the phone bill showing my other number.Opt in is appropriate.</blockquote>I have to agree. It's not the case now, but in a couple of my previous guilds, I'd have toons that were "my time" characters, when I just wanted to go off and noodle about on my own (luckily, my current guild is awesome about letting me have my "noodling time").Opt in for privacy options is a good thing, in my opinion.

Caela

02-11-2012, 11:04 AM

feldon30

02-11-2012, 11:24 AM

There may be only downside to wading into this thread, but I'm going to give it a go...For years, SOE has had a website called EQ2Players. Most people used it to improve themselves, lookup characters without having to camp to them or even be logged into the game, see what equipment or spells they needed, as well as to learn from how other players experience the game, etc.Every device or service has the potential for harm. A telephone can be used to harass or threaten. An automobile can be used for transportation, or as a deadly weapon. To my knowledge, most people did not use EQ2Players for cyberstalking or putting other people down.Ironically, EQ2Players as previewed in Thursday night's webcast demonstrated a strong focus on comparing and contrasting the stats and equipment of your character and others. This is not a feature we developed. We're players too, and we built our site based upon the features we wanted to have for our own characters.SOE provided the data. We built a site. Not surprisingly, it won't be everyone's cup of tea. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" />

Lantis

02-11-2012, 03:17 PM

<cite>Krowpa wrote:</cite><blockquote>First, I have to say I do not understand any earthly reason anybody would want or need the information that the EQ2 Players (and now EQ2U site) has to offer. Honestly - I just don't get it. I never used it and see no point in it, so for me</blockquote>But judging from how many persons have been begging SOE for EQ2Players to come back, it's obvious that a lot of people DO use it, and have found reasons to use it. EQ2 is an MMO. The key element in an MMO versus a regular game is the community aspect. A site like EQ2Players can be used both as a tool and a fun way to play the game. Let me enumerate a few:1) As a recruitment tool. Just like an employer or a landlord might require background or credit checks to be done on you, some guild recruiter will want to see who your alts are, to find out more about you before allowing you into their guild. This is a very legitimate need, and as I say, it happens in the real world as well. Of course, you are free to deny them access to that information. And they are free to deny you access to their guild as well.2) Leaderboards. EQ2 is, at its heart, a game. Part of a game means competition. Being able to see how far behind the other server tanks you can be HP-wise, or how far behind you can be in terms of highest melee hit IS a fun thing for many people. In my guild, some of us were keeping a close high at who had the most deaths on our server, as a few of us were ranking pretty high on that list.3) Helping out. If you are a wizard, and you know this other guild's wizard is better than you, being able to see his gear might help you become a better player. Of course, it's up to that other wizard to decide wether he prefers to "hide his tricks", but a lot of people have no problem helping other players. When I was in a high-end raiding guild, anyone who ever came to me in-game asking for tips on my class would find me willing to spend time with them answering any question they had.4) It's fun. Just like people like to search IMDB to learn more about an actor they liked in a certain movie, people might like to learn more about other players either in their own guild, or playing the same class as them.5) It can help you manage your own characters. Raiders will often end up gearing their alts with gear that isn't wanted by the raid force. You can either waste 23 people's time by camping to your alt to check if he could use a given piece of gear, or you can spend 20 secs to look it up on EQ2Players.So, maybe you don't care about any of these. But that doesn't mean there isn't many people out there who do. EQ2Players has been a popular feature, and there are many reasons why someone would want such a tool.

Katine

02-11-2012, 05:06 PM

I just checked out the EQU site and WOW is all I can say.THANK YOU to EQ Wire and everyone else who worked on this project. I don't remember the latest version of EQ2 Players since I've been out of the game for the past few years. I DO remember the older version that was very limited.This version is WOW! I LOVE the spell list! Now I know I can start upgrading some spells without worrying that they're going to get replaced again.I have a shopping list I can make - talk about convenient!I can compare stats and armor and work on improving my character without having to spend endless hours searching various websites (some that are not fully updated).The site is wonderful!I have a question about the AAs though....the site mentions that you can save a profile from Beetny right on the character. Is that the in game character or EQU site character? If it saves it in game, how does that work with regards to needing to respec, etc?Also, is there a way to put a second AA profile on there? I have the AA mirror and have a second "adventuring" profile saved but right now, it's showing my current profile which is my tradeskilling profile. If I want to see my adventuring profile, but can't log in game, it seems that I have no way to do so.The feature I would like to see added next (and I'm sure this is in progres, but I'm just noting it as a priority) is the ability to search characters without needing to enter the first three letters of a name.Otherwise, keep up the GREAT work! This new site was WELL worth the wait!

feldon30

02-11-2012, 05:38 PM

<cite>Katine@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>I just checked out the EQU site and WOW is all I can say.THANK YOU to EQ Wire and everyone else who worked on this project. I don't remember the latest version of EQ2 Players since I've been out of the game for the past few years. I DO remember the older version that was very limited.This version is WOW! I LOVE the spell list! Now I know I can start upgrading some spells without worrying that they're going to get replaced again.I have a shopping list I can make - talk about convenient!I can compare stats and armor and work on improving my character without having to spend endless hours searching various websites (some that are not fully updated).The site is wonderful!</blockquote>Thanks. I've almost forgotten what it's like to actually PLAY EQ2 after working on this site night and day. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><cite>Katine@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>I have a question about the AAs though....the site mentions that you can save a profile from Beetny right on the character. Is that the in game character or EQU site character? If it saves it in game, how does that work with regards to needing to respec, etc?</blockquote><blockquote>Also, is there a way to put a second AA profile on there? I have the AA mirror and have a second "adventuring" profile saved but right now, it's showing my current profile which is my tradeskilling profile. If I want to see my adventuring profile, but can't log in game, it seems that I have no way to do so.</blockquote>This feature didn't make it. We're working on a way to export your current in-game AA setup as a Beetny.com compatible link. And since you can store 3 Beetny.com URLs on each character, this provides a way to "backup" different AA setups at Beetny.com. It's not fully integrated, but it's something we wanted to do to support Beetny since he has been hand-entering this data for years.<cite>Katine@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>The feature I would like to see added next (and I'm sure this is in progres, but I'm just noting it as a priority) is the ability to search characters without needing to enter the first three letters of a name.Otherwise, keep up the GREAT work! This new site was WELL worth the wait!</blockquote>We'll evaluate the performance of removing the 3 character restriction. I don't want an e-mail from Dan asking us why there are flames shooting out of the server. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Kasar

02-12-2012, 02:04 AM

<cite>Caela wrote:</cite><blockquote>It happened - I watched it live.</blockquote>They don't even store it on twitch, it must have been really bad.

feldon30

02-12-2012, 08:42 AM

I screen shotted their screen shots but it was very fuzzy and hard to see. I figured they would post sourced screenshots on facebook without the video compression.

feldon30

02-12-2012, 01:33 PM

UPDATE: Here are some screenshots of what was shown during the webcast. Hopefully they'll upload some clearer shots on Facebook soon.<img src="http://eq2wire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/eq2players_new01.jpg" width="800" height="486" />Viewing Item Details<img src="http://eq2wire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/eq2players_new02.jpg" />Stats<img src="http://eq2wire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/eq2players_new09-compare.jpg" width="800" height="486" />Character Comparison<img src="http://eq2wire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/eq2players_new12.jpg" width="800" height="486" />Bar Charts<img src="http://eq2wire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/eq2players_new08-AAs.jpg" width="800" height="486" />AAs

Tayne

02-12-2012, 01:35 PM

<cite>Meridia@Crushbone wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Brigh wrote:</cite><blockquote>Will you please set our privacy default to hide all? I can't believe the old settings of EQ2Players allowed everyone to see, especially when you transfer servers I think it resets it.</blockquote>I liked that.Let me see if that "new to eq2 halp" guy applying to my guild was full of it or not(could see if he had other level 90s)</blockquote>Or the guy who claims to be new, comes in loots a guild's entire bank (before a new guild leader/guild understands the mechanics of guild bank -- how many folks learned the hard way?) and then leaves.Having the ability to see a person's alts just keeps folks honest, imo.

Brigh

02-12-2012, 07:56 PM

<cite>Meridia@Crushbone wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Brigh wrote:</cite><blockquote>Will you please set our privacy default to hide all? I can't believe the old settings of EQ2Players allowed everyone to see, especially when you transfer servers I think it resets it.</blockquote>I liked that.Let me see if that "new to eq2 halp" guy applying to my guild was full of it or not(could see if he had other level 90s)</blockquote>Well I do/did have a "stalker" as a previous poster "fixed" a previous poster's ...post...Someone I don't know calls me by an alt's name and a moved character he started calling by that alt's name the very first group I was in within a few days after transferring. I don't want to be called by that alt's name. It's creepy when someone you don't know does that, especially on a recently moved character. EQ2Players went down shortly after that, but I did find out that what was previously hidden, became open possibly due to transferring the character.

bks6721

02-13-2012, 12:04 PM

I feel that info like AA, spells level ect are nobody's business except my own. I'll be suggesting to all in my guild to opt out.If I wanted everyone to know all my alts I'd put it in my bio page.If you can't run a guild bank without being robbed by a level 1 you probably can't figure out eq2 players either.

Lempo

02-13-2012, 06:12 PM

<cite>Pauly@Befallen wrote:</cite><blockquote>I feel that info like AA, spells level ect are nobody's business except my own. I'll be suggesting to all in my guild to opt out.If I wanted everyone to know all my alts I'd put it in my bio page.If you can't run a guild bank without being robbed by a level 1 you probably can't figure out eq2 players either.</blockquote>So just exactly what business do YOU have to suggesting to others in your guild what to do with theirs?This is a great way for guild leaders/raid leaders to maximize their raid force, for new players to learn from those that have been here for awhile, but there seems to be a rampant boon of lunacy about 'privacy' (lol please) and borderline schizo-paranoid stories about stalkers (another lol).There is always going to be competition in an MMO, this is why there is an interest in this site coming back online, as well as the other fan sites having access to the data, because there is competition there and competition breeds excellence there just as it does in the game. You can rest assured that no one really cares about your gear, or what you are killing (if anything). I just wish there was a way to prevent people that block their data from using any of the services, but unfortunately there is really no easy way to implement that, so the hypocrites will be hypocrites. Someone can right click and inspect you in game and get a great deal of the info that is on the sites anyway so just block your toon and take your tin foil hat off. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" />I think it would be good if players could choose to block AA's, spells, equipment etc. and that may be something that can be implemented. There is nothing to hide on your spells you are either fully mastered or not, and if you are not and you are raiding then you are doing it wrong.

feldon30

02-13-2012, 06:38 PM

Roslyn

02-13-2012, 07:41 PM

Just a few hours ago a guildy on his BL was discussing AA with me. Since I wasn't on my BL at that time and don't have the trees completely memorized, I went to u.eq2wire and looked up his character. I made some suggestions on his AA, looked up my character to compare. It was so much easier than logging over to my BL and trying to ask him every single AA he had specc'd and what he had available. Nothing "nefarious" happened. I don't know his cell number now or his home address. It is an incredibly useful tool and just because some people don't realize its potential doesn't mean it's scary/untrustworthy/equivalenttoFBIwiretapping.I am also a guild recruiter and the day that the alts list finally goes in I will make it a requirement that anyone trying to get into my guild has their alts showing. In a perfect situation, they could give me a "pass" and still be opted out for the general public. If I see one of their alts is that guy cussing everyone out in general chat, I know right off the bat he isn't what we're looking for. Or sometimes guildies send me a recruitment message instead of a tell, I can see that they are guilded on all their alts, and just toss them an invite.

Starbuck17712

02-13-2012, 08:47 PM

Update: Video is on the EQ2 youtube page now.<a href="http://youtu.be/rzu9P_mn1wo" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://youtu.be/rzu9P_mn1wo</a>

Krowpa

02-13-2012, 09:45 PM

I like the idea that this is a role playing game. That means everything shouldn't be available to everybody. If this was about real people as characters, it would be the same as making your Facebook profile available to everybody with an internet connection. That Facebook profile would not just show what you wanted it to though. It would show your home address, your bank balance, what your underwear is like, basically everything there is to know about you. Nobody would want that. I treat my character with the same respect I treat myself, which means I value the privacy of my character as much as I do myself. Personally, I don't understand why people equate privacy with a something evil.Like the previous poster, I am at least going to tell my guild mates how to opt out if they want to. It isn't public, and most of my the people in my guild aren't even aware that this site exists. It's a matter of informing people of something that they SOE hasn't really told people that unless they inhabit forums and/or fansites. I know I am not the only person in my guild who hates it that people can inspect and see their stats / armor / etc. Basically, saying that we shouldn't share this knowledge is saying that there is something wrong with giving people information on how to manage their own privacy. Oh, and I have no problem switching characters if I need to look at it. It isn't that hard. I don't try and base how I customize my character off of anybody else, so I would never look at their information. I trust people enough to let people in my guild at a low enough rank that I can figure out if they are a good fit before I allow them access to higher levels. Basically, I have yet to find a compelling argument as to why I would ever look at the information on this site. it is either information I don't need, want, or can get easily enough by changing toons or politely asking somebody else.

gourdon

02-14-2012, 04:36 AM

<cite>Krowpa wrote:</cite><blockquote>I like the idea that this is a role playing game. That means everything shouldn't be available to everybody. If this was about real people as characters, it would be the same as making your Facebook profile available to everybody with an internet connection. That Facebook profile would not just show what you wanted it to though. It would show your home address, your bank balance, what your underwear is like, basically everything there is to know about you. Nobody would want that. I treat my character with the same respect I treat myself, which means I value the privacy of my character as much as I do myself. Personally, I don't understand why people equate privacy with a something evil.Like the previous poster, I am at least going to tell my guild mates how to opt out if they want to. It isn't public, and most of my the people in my guild aren't even aware that this site exists. It's a matter of informing people of something that they SOE hasn't really told people that unless they inhabit forums and/or fansites. I know I am not the only person in my guild who hates it that people can inspect and see their stats / armor / etc. Basically, saying that we shouldn't share this knowledge is saying that there is something wrong with giving people information on how to manage their own privacy. Oh, and I have no problem switching characters if I need to look at it. It isn't that hard. I don't try and base how I customize my character off of anybody else, so I would never look at their information. I trust people enough to let people in my guild at a low enough rank that I can figure out if they are a good fit before I allow them access to higher levels. Basically, I have yet to find a compelling argument as to why I would ever look at the information on this site. it is either information I don't need, want, or can get easily enough by changing toons or politely asking somebody else.</blockquote>If you were actually roleplaying your character, you wouldn't be thinking about how something outside the game is affecting you. Further, it is impossible to have anything near meaningful roleplay in an MMO since there are no consequences in the game world to what you do. If you kill a mob, they just repop and say the same thing to you later as though you never killed them. As for other players, you can't do anything to harm them unless you're on a PvP server, where there is little to no repurcussions to killing someone in the street. RP in an MMO is limited to the little things you do to round out your character and lame story time. That is pretty much it, which boils down to your RP argument being a lot of nothing.Privacy in an MMO is very near meaningless. Nothing about your character is as personal as the most trivial piece of real world personal information. Further, the limitations in the game prevent us from evaluating someone like we would in a real world. Everyone moves the same, their gear appearance is independent of what they really have. There is no way to discern quality gear and skill(level AAs and training) from inferior without seeing stats of some sort. Still, the drama queens will disagree, but blowing things out of proportion is what they do. Even though they have the tools to have complete privacy, they will instead post on boards about how their underwear is somehow being exposed to stalkers that are everywhere.

feldon30

02-14-2012, 12:13 PM

<a href="http://eq2wire.com/2012/02/14/eq2players-preview-webcast-transcript/" target="_blank">Transcript of the EQ2Players Webcast</a>

Onorem

02-14-2012, 02:07 PM

<cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote><a href="http://eq2wire.com/2012/02/14/eq2players-preview-webcast-transcript/" target="_blank">Transcript of the EQ2Players Webcast</a></blockquote>Thanks for the transcript. Kinda wish my question hadn't been merged with and attributed to Brigh, but oh well.

Krowpa

02-14-2012, 02:24 PM

<cite>gourdon wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Krowpa wrote:</cite><blockquote>I like the idea that this is a role playing game. That means everything shouldn't be available to everybody. If this was about real people as characters, it would be the same as making your Facebook profile available to everybody with an internet connection. That Facebook profile would not just show what you wanted it to though. It would show your home address, your bank balance, what your underwear is like, basically everything there is to know about you. Nobody would want that. I treat my character with the same respect I treat myself, which means I value the privacy of my character as much as I do myself. Personally, I don't understand why people equate privacy with a something evil.Like the previous poster, I am at least going to tell my guild mates how to opt out if they want to. It isn't public, and most of my the people in my guild aren't even aware that this site exists. It's a matter of informing people of something that they SOE hasn't really told people that unless they inhabit forums and/or fansites. I know I am not the only person in my guild who hates it that people can inspect and see their stats / armor / etc. Basically, saying that we shouldn't share this knowledge is saying that there is something wrong with giving people information on how to manage their own privacy. Oh, and I have no problem switching characters if I need to look at it. It isn't that hard. I don't try and base how I customize my character off of anybody else, so I would never look at their information. I trust people enough to let people in my guild at a low enough rank that I can figure out if they are a good fit before I allow them access to higher levels. Basically, I have yet to find a compelling argument as to why I would ever look at the information on this site. it is either information I don't need, want, or can get easily enough by changing toons or politely asking somebody else.</blockquote>If you were actually roleplaying your character, you wouldn't be thinking about how something outside the game is affecting you. Further, it is impossible to have anything near meaningful roleplay in an MMO since there are no consequences in the game world to what you do. If you kill a mob, they just repop and say the same thing to you later as though you never killed them. As for other players, you can't do anything to harm them unless you're on a PvP server, where there is little to no repurcussions to killing someone in the street. RP in an MMO is limited to the little things you do to round out your character and lame story time. That is pretty much it, which boils down to your RP argument being a lot of nothing.Privacy in an MMO is very near meaningless. Nothing about your character is as personal as the most trivial piece of real world personal information. Further, the limitations in the game prevent us from evaluating someone like we would in a real world. Everyone moves the same, their gear appearance is independent of what they really have. There is no way to discern quality gear and skill(level AAs and training) from inferior without seeing stats of some sort. Still, the drama queens will disagree, but blowing things out of proportion is what they do. Even though they have the tools to have complete privacy, they will instead post on boards about how their underwear is somehow being exposed to stalkers that are everywhere.</blockquote>From my point of view, you are jumping all over anybody that doesn't want all their information open to the nosey folks, plain and simple. It's not being a "drama queen" to want to keep your stuff private. But privacy, whether in a game or the real world, is something that is rapidly being degraded. I kind of wonder why you are so upset that you wouuld post so angrily about people defending a right to privacy for there character. Because, let's face it, saying somebody feels they have a right to privacy isn't being a "Drama Queen" and if you look at all the information available from the stream, what you would get if this was real life is comparable to Facebook listing every detail of your life for public view. Given that a couple of my toons wear appearance gear, and the role playing story is they don't wear armor (storywise they have reasons why they have the effects their armor gives), I don't want that illusion easily broken by somebody inspecting them or going to some web site and seeing what lies beneath the appearance. That totally breaks the character. And in those cases, yes, it is just like you seeing what kind of underwear they are wearing.Personally, I think it is just plain wrong to judge a person on their gear just as much as it is to judge them in reality by their clothing. Where my character lives could be equated with where I live, it shows how much money your character has - you could make real world equivalents easily between all of these things. And you can't really judge a person from just looking at them. Just because i can put on toolbelt doesn't make me a skilled carpenter, so you are incorrect in stating that there is a difference there between games and reality. (i would equate AA with job skills). That is what you are saying you are doing. It may not be your intention, but you are coming off very much as a snob. It is one of the big reasons this information should be hidden by default - to keep the judgemental folks from having so much influence in the game. I will happily group with anybody, because it's about fun, not stats. Your statements indicate that you do not respect role players, so I would question why you would even play something that is billed as a "Role Playing Game' to start with. I think most people who enjoy role playing would take offense at your terming stories in the game as "lame".

Onorem

02-14-2012, 02:38 PM

<cite>Krowpa wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>gourdon wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Krowpa wrote:</cite><blockquote>I like the idea that this is a role playing game. That means everything shouldn't be available to everybody. If this was about real people as characters, it would be the same as making your Facebook profile available to everybody with an internet connection. That Facebook profile would not just show what you wanted it to though. It would show your home address, your bank balance, what your underwear is like, basically everything there is to know about you. Nobody would want that. I treat my character with the same respect I treat myself, which means I value the privacy of my character as much as I do myself. Personally, I don't understand why people equate privacy with a something evil.Like the previous poster, I am at least going to tell my guild mates how to opt out if they want to. It isn't public, and most of my the people in my guild aren't even aware that this site exists. It's a matter of informing people of something that they SOE hasn't really told people that unless they inhabit forums and/or fansites. I know I am not the only person in my guild who hates it that people can inspect and see their stats / armor / etc. Basically, saying that we shouldn't share this knowledge is saying that there is something wrong with giving people information on how to manage their own privacy. Oh, and I have no problem switching characters if I need to look at it. It isn't that hard. I don't try and base how I customize my character off of anybody else, so I would never look at their information. I trust people enough to let people in my guild at a low enough rank that I can figure out if they are a good fit before I allow them access to higher levels. Basically, I have yet to find a compelling argument as to why I would ever look at the information on this site. it is either information I don't need, want, or can get easily enough by changing toons or politely asking somebody else.</blockquote>If you were actually roleplaying your character, you wouldn't be thinking about how something outside the game is affecting you. Further, it is impossible to have anything near meaningful roleplay in an MMO since there are no consequences in the game world to what you do. If you kill a mob, they just repop and say the same thing to you later as though you never killed them. As for other players, you can't do anything to harm them unless you're on a PvP server, where there is little to no repurcussions to killing someone in the street. RP in an MMO is limited to the little things you do to round out your character and lame story time. That is pretty much it, which boils down to your RP argument being a lot of nothing.Privacy in an MMO is very near meaningless. Nothing about your character is as personal as the most trivial piece of real world personal information. Further, the limitations in the game prevent us from evaluating someone like we would in a real world. Everyone moves the same, their gear appearance is independent of what they really have. There is no way to discern quality gear and skill(level AAs and training) from inferior without seeing stats of some sort. Still, the drama queens will disagree, but blowing things out of proportion is what they do. Even though they have the tools to have complete privacy, they will instead post on boards about how their underwear is somehow being exposed to stalkers that are everywhere.</blockquote>From my point of view, you are jumping all over anybody that doesn't want all their information open to the nosey folks, plain and simple. It's not being a "drama queen" to want to keep your stuff private. But privacy, whether in a game or the real world, is something that is rapidly being degraded. I kind of wonder why you are so upset that you wouuld post so angrily about people defending a right to privacy for there character. Because, let's face it, saying somebody feels they have a right to privacy isn't being a "Drama Queen" and if you look at all the information available from the stream, what you would get if this was real life is comparable to Facebook listing every detail of your life for public view. Given that a couple of my toons wear appearance gear, and the role playing story is they don't wear armor (storywise they have reasons why they have the effects their armor gives), I don't want that illusion easily broken by somebody inspecting them or going to some web site and seeing what lies beneath the appearance. That totally breaks the character. And in those cases, yes, it is just like you seeing what kind of underwear they are wearing.Personally, I think it is just plain wrong to judge a person on their gear just as much as it is to judge them in reality by their clothing. Where my character lives could be equated with where I live, it shows how much money your character has - you could make real world equivalents easily between all of these things. And you can't really judge a person from just looking at them. Just because i can put on toolbelt doesn't make me a skilled carpenter, so you are incorrect in stating that there is a difference there between games and reality. (i would equate AA with job skills). That is what you are saying you are doing. It may not be your intention, but you are coming off very much as a snob. It is one of the big reasons this information should be hidden by default - to keep the judgemental folks from having so much influence in the game. I will happily group with anybody, because it's about fun, not stats. Your statements indicate that you do not respect role players, so I would question why you would even play something that is billed as a "Role Playing Game' to start with. I think most people who enjoy role playing would take offense at your terming stories in the game as "lame".</blockquote>This isn't facebook. This isn't real life. It's a silly analogy.I'm not completely against giving people the right to hide their character information, but comparing people being able to see your AAs and alts to giving out your real life address and bank info is absurd.

Lodrelhai

02-15-2012, 12:00 AM

<cite>Roslyn wrote:</cite><blockquote>Just a few hours ago a guildy on his BL was discussing AA with me. Since I wasn't on my BL at that time and don't have the trees completely memorized, I went to u.eq2wire and looked up his character. I made some suggestions on his AA, looked up my character to compare. It was so much easier than logging over to my BL and trying to ask him every single AA he had specc'd and what he had available. Nothing "nefarious" happened. I don't know his cell number now or his home address. It is an incredibly useful tool and just because some people don't realize its potential doesn't mean it's scary/untrustworthy/equivalenttoFBIwiretapping.I am also a guild recruiter and the day that the alts list finally goes in I will make it a requirement that anyone trying to get into my guild has their alts showing. In a perfect situation, they could give me a "pass" and still be opted out for the general public. If I see one of their alts is that guy cussing everyone out in general chat, I know right off the bat he isn't what we're looking for. Or sometimes guildies send me a recruitment message instead of a tell, I can see that they are guilded on all their alts, and just toss them an invite. </blockquote>But how will you know if they are showing all of their alts? They could say they don't have any, or only show 3-4 characters, while keeping the guy cussing everyone out in general chat secret, because each alt has to be flagged to show individually.

Roslyn

02-15-2012, 12:04 AM

<cite>Lodrelhai wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Roslyn wrote:</cite><blockquote>Just a few hours ago a guildy on his BL was discussing AA with me. Since I wasn't on my BL at that time and don't have the trees completely memorized, I went to u.eq2wire and looked up his character. I made some suggestions on his AA, looked up my character to compare. It was so much easier than logging over to my BL and trying to ask him every single AA he had specc'd and what he had available. Nothing "nefarious" happened. I don't know his cell number now or his home address. It is an incredibly useful tool and just because some people don't realize its potential doesn't mean it's scary/untrustworthy/equivalenttoFBIwiretapping.I am also a guild recruiter and the day that the alts list finally goes in I will make it a requirement that anyone trying to get into my guild has their alts showing. In a perfect situation, they could give me a "pass" and still be opted out for the general public. If I see one of their alts is that guy cussing everyone out in general chat, I know right off the bat he isn't what we're looking for. Or sometimes guildies send me a recruitment message instead of a tell, I can see that they are guilded on all their alts, and just toss them an invite. </blockquote>But how will you know if they are showing all of their alts? They could say they don't have any, or only show 3-4 characters, while keeping the guy cussing everyone out in general chat secret, because each alt has to be flagged to show individually.</blockquote>I actually just posted a thread about this. As it stands now the the alt opt-in function is utterly useless for checking characters. I am currently in-game logging over to each of my characters and manually opting them in, it's absurd. I wouldn't ask someone to do that in order to join my guild because it's pointless. An option to opt-in ALL of my alts is what I am looking for, or better yet, have them add me to a private list so I could see their alts while they still enjoy the luxury of anonymity if it strikes their fancy.

feldon30

02-15-2012, 09:57 AM

<cite>Krowpa wrote:</cite><blockquote>From my point of view, you are jumping all over anybody that doesn't want all their information open to the nosey folks, plain and simple. It's not being a "drama queen" to want to keep your stuff private.</blockquote>You're being called out for coming after people who value services like EQ2Players, claiming we are unethical, immoral, stalkers, or worse. You're saying that there is something wrong with people who want to use a service like EQ2U and EQ2Players to look up our own characters or the characters of our friends or guildmates. Sorry, but if you stick your hand into the beehive, you should not be surprised when you get stung.At this point, all you are doing is drawing attention to yourself. I have the greatest respect for roleplayers. But I don't know too many of them who repeatedly draw comparisons to Facebook, real life, their clothes, how much money they have, etc. This seems antithetical to creating a fantasy persona with no connection to your real life. Which is it?It's also bears repeating that there is nothing personally identifiable about the data from a video game character, unless you are putting your phone number in your Bio field or full real name on your character.The people who are genuinely interested in privacy unchecked the checkbox on their EQ2 Share tab when it became available in mid-December and moved on with their day. The rest is just theater.

Trynt

02-15-2012, 12:02 PM

Feldon, question... was the Crit Mit stat purposely removed from the EQ2U site (perhaps in anticipation of the stat being removed from the game)? It's no longer displaying on my side (though I could swear it did on launch), and didn't see that mentioned elsewhere or in the FAQ.

feldon30

02-15-2012, 12:40 PM

<cite>Trynt wrote:</cite><blockquote>Feldon, question... was the Crit Mit stat purposely removed from the EQ2U site (perhaps in anticipation of the stat being removed from the game)? It's no longer displaying on my side (though I could swear it did on launch), and didn't see that mentioned elsewhere or in the FAQ.</blockquote>We went ahead and removed it when the Crit Mit changes went to test and we started getting back character data with the stat missing. Maybe it was a bit premature.

Rijacki

02-15-2012, 01:09 PM

<cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote>The people who are genuinely interested in privacy unchecked the checkbox on their EQ2 Share tab when it became available in mid-December and moved on with their day. The rest is just theater.</blockquote>Bingo.If you don't want other people to have information about YOUR character, you can opt out. I unchecked the box on an alt which I just use for crafting currently. I could not look her up at all on EQ2U. It is exactly as if she doesn't exist. That's actually better than the old EQ2Players where you could still find character names but would then be presented with a 'this character has info hidden' page. When the new EQ2Players launches, I'll have to see how it's handled there, when not logged into my own account.

feldon30

02-16-2012, 06:30 PM

Don't look now, but EQ2Players is live. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://players.everquest2.com/" target="_blank">http://players.everquest2.com/</a>

WanyenII

02-16-2012, 06:33 PM

HTTP 500 Internal Server Error

Lempo

02-16-2012, 06:36 PM

<cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Don't look now, but EQ2Players is live. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://players.everquest2.com/" target="_blank">http://players.everquest2.com/</a></blockquote>I guess being forced to login to eq2 players when logged into the forums is part of the new increased forum security measures?Really?You mean that the access to this is going to require a login?Don't mean to rain on the parade but this will not be well received I'm guessing.

Lempo

02-16-2012, 06:40 PM

My session expired, popped a dialog box up and kicked me back to the login screen.

feldon30

02-16-2012, 07:09 PM

I wonder if they intended for the site to be live yet?I heard that it's a soft launch. Not something being promoted yet but people can try it out.

Lantis

02-16-2012, 07:28 PM

I had a quick (and limited - since my characters haven't been logged in since before the data started being exported, I am limited to the "sample account") look, and aside from feeling dizzy from all the automatic scrolling up and down, I think I can say this site will have a quite different audience than EQ2U has.

Lantis

02-16-2012, 07:30 PM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Don't look now, but EQ2Players is live. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://players.everquest2.com/" target="_blank">http://players.everquest2.com/</a></blockquote>I guess being forced to login to eq2 players when logged into the forums is part of the new increased forum security measures?Really?You mean that the access to this is going to require a login?Don't mean to rain on the parade but this will not be well received I'm guessing.</blockquote>Seems to be a design decision: by default, EQ2Players displays YOUR character, and lets you compare it with another one. In that design, it makes sense to enforce a login.But if you are looking for something more like the old EQ2Players, I think EQ2U is much closer to the mark in terms of features and usability.

Lempo

02-16-2012, 07:36 PM

Yes I have already been on Feldon's site, the problem is some people will not know about it, some will be weary of using a 3rd party site etc. I must add here that EQ2Wire is a site that should cause no concern there are no third party ads on the site, and there is absolutely no cause for concern. It is recognized by SOE as an official fan site as well.EQ2players should not require a login, it din't before, it shouldn't now.You should not be required to login to compare characters, you want to compare yours to another you should simply go to the site and enter both names, you want to compare 2 characters that are not yours, same thing.There is no need for there to be a login to get there, and if I am already logged into the forum I should not have to log in there. This new 'security' guy they have does not have a clue apparently and is only making a lot of 'changes' to appear as if he is doing more than he really is.

feldon30

02-16-2012, 07:56 PM

-

Katz

02-16-2012, 08:20 PM

CorpseGoddess

02-16-2012, 09:28 PM

Okay, so far here are my impressions:PLEASE don't make my session expire when I'm actually in the middle of something. If I'm inactive, fine. But if I'm ACTIVELY USING THE SITE, there's no reason to log me out.Where are these stats, please:<ul><li>Date character created</li><li>Number of quests completed</li><li>Number of rares harvested</li><li>Number of discoveries (world/server)</li><li>Achievements actually completed, instead of a list of all possible achievements</li></ul>No player bio section, either.This needs to be more comprehensive, please.

Lantis

02-16-2012, 10:06 PM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>There is no need for there to be a login to get there, and if I am already logged into the forum I should not have to log in there. This new 'security' guy they have does not have a clue apparently and is only making a lot of 'changes' to appear as if he is doing more than he really is.</blockquote>They probably can't share the same session most likely because both sites sit on a different domain. Cookies are domain-bound.

Katine

02-16-2012, 10:20 PM

I'm a little confused.I just checked out the EQ2 Players site. It's different from the EQ2U site that EQ2 Wire made. I thought the EQ2U site was going to be the new EQ2 players. Are they both going to exist side by side with one filling the gaps that the other doesn't have?I much prefer the EQ2 U site because it has nicer features - AA incorporation with Beetny, spell lists and upgrades, etc. Can someone clarify what's going on? Will one replace the other or are they just coexisting?Thanks!

Lempo

02-16-2012, 11:10 PM

<cite>Katine@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>I just checked out the EQ2 Players site. It's different from the EQ2U site that EQ2 Wire made. I thought the EQ2U site was going to be the new EQ2 players. Are they both going to exist side by side with one filling the gaps that the other doesn't have?I much prefer the EQ2 U site because it has nicer features - AA incorporation with Beetny, spell lists and upgrades, etc. Can someone clarify what's going on? Will one replace the other or are they just coexisting?</blockquote>SOE made the data feeds open to where fan sites could create their own version of 'EQ2players', SOE was going to relaunch EQ2Players as well. It introduces competition and clearly you can see which is better. SOE's is not done yet but with the fact that the security guy there feels a need to make logging in a requirement to use that site which does nothing but jeopardize your account unnecessarily every time you do it, it is not going to be accepted.They will be coexisting and EQ2U will be the winner between the 2.

Lempo

02-16-2012, 11:49 PM

<cite>Lantis@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>There is no need for there to be a login to get there, and if I am already logged into the forum I should not have to log in there. This new 'security' guy they have does not have a clue apparently and is only making a lot of 'changes' to appear as if he is doing more than he really is.</blockquote>They probably can't share the same session most likely because both sites sit on a different domain. Cookies are domain-bound.</blockquote>Did not even pay attention to the different domain and while cookies are not shareable across domains there are secure ways around that issue. It is apparently still in a beta stage so I'll leave it at that, it LOOKS good but it wouldn't do a compare and it logged me out within minutes, I'll try again some other time.

Lantis

02-17-2012, 12:33 AM

<cite>Katine@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'm a little confused.I just checked out the EQ2 Players site. It's different from the EQ2U site that EQ2 Wire made. I thought the EQ2U site was going to be the new EQ2 players. Are they both going to exist side by side with one filling the gaps that the other doesn't have?I much prefer the EQ2 U site because it has nicer features - AA incorporation with Beetny, spell lists and upgrades, etc. Can someone clarify what's going on? Will one replace the other or are they just coexisting?Thanks!</blockquote>EQ2U is done by the EQ2Wire folks, and is totally independant from SOE. They merely get the data from public data feeds SOE provides for third party developers, and they build the whole website based on these data feeds.

Lantis

02-17-2012, 12:35 AM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>Did not even pay attention to the different domain and while cookies are not shareable across domains there are secure ways around that issue. It is apparently still in a beta stage so I'll leave it at that, it LOOKS good but it wouldn't do a compare and it logged me out within minutes, I'll try again some other time.</blockquote>Definitely something that could be worked around by reworking how they handle authentication, yeah. Just saying why it's probably not working as expected at this point.I have a feeling the short timeout happens to be the same one those forums used to have a few weeks ago when they implemented that oddball security, and that got increased to three hours due to popular demand. They probably didn't think to update the codebase of the eq2players website to also use the longer timeout.

feldon30

02-17-2012, 06:00 AM

<cite>Katine@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'm a little confused.I just checked out the EQ2 Players site. It's different from the EQ2U site that EQ2Wire made. I thought the EQ2U site was going to be the new EQ2 players.</blockquote>For some it will. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><cite>Katine@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>Are they both going to exist side by side with one filling the gaps that the other doesn't have?I much prefer the EQ2 U site because it has nicer features - AA incorporation with Beetny, spell lists and upgrades, etc. Can someone clarify what's going on? Will one replace the other or are they just coexisting?Thanks!</blockquote>SOE is now offering a <a href="http://data.soe.com/" target="_blank">Data Feeds API</a>. Anyone can make an EQ2-powered website using this data. The beauty of having more than one site presenting EQ2Players data is, people can use and present the data in different ways. EQ2Traders could rebuild their recipe database with just a few API calls. EQ2Decorators could get new house items from the feed the moment they appear in-game. And if a new feature is added to the game, some sites will add support for it, and some won't.And just to n!p the privacy concerns in the bud, you can opt out of all EQ2 data websites by unchecking the 'Enable EQ2Players Updates' in-game on each of your characters.I'm glad you are enjoying EQ2U. We spent 5 months planning and building it, with just about every waking moment for the last month getting it styled, tweaked and built out to where it is now. It will be interesting to see what features EQ2Players adds in the coming months.

Whilhelmina

02-17-2012, 09:45 AM

Could it be possible for you (SoE) to add back the possibility to at least "remember" the login and password on EQ2players (and on the boards)? Having to type login/password/authentificator each time is a major pain (and if anyone knows how to add them back manualy to password list on Firefox, i'll take any advice).

Katz

02-17-2012, 10:07 AM

<cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Katine@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'm a little confused.I just checked out the EQ2 Players site. It's different from the EQ2U site that EQ2Wire made. I thought the EQ2U site was going to be the new EQ2 players.</blockquote>For some it will. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /><cite>Katine@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>Are they both going to exist side by side with one filling the gaps that the other doesn't have?I much prefer the EQ2 U site because it has nicer features - AA incorporation with Beetny, spell lists and upgrades, etc. Can someone clarify what's going on? Will one replace the other or are they just coexisting?Thanks!</blockquote>SOE is now offering a <a href="http://data.soe.com/" target="_blank">Data Feeds API</a>. Anyone can make an EQ2-powered website using this data. The beauty of having more than one site presenting EQ2Players data is, people can use and present the data in different ways. EQ2Traders could rebuild their recipe database with just a few API calls. EQ2Decorators could get new house items from the feed the moment they appear in-game. And if a new feature is added to the game, some sites will add support for it, and some won't.And just to n!p the privacy concerns in the bud, you can opt out of all EQ2 data websites by unchecking the 'Enable EQ2Players Updates' in-game on each of your characters.I'm glad you are enjoying EQ2U. We spent 5 months planning and building it, with just about every waking moment for the last month getting it styled, tweaked and built out to where it is now. It will be interesting to see what features EQ2Players adds in the coming months.</blockquote>I hope that they do. What about sites that show armor and weapons from in game? Quests? I really hope our "go to" sites go wild with this.

Lantis

02-17-2012, 12:09 PM

<cite>Katz wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote>SOE is now offering a <a href="http://data.soe.com/" target="_blank">Data Feeds API</a>. Anyone can make an EQ2-powered website using this data. The beauty of having more than one site presenting EQ2Players data is, people can use and present the data in different ways. EQ2Traders could rebuild their recipe database with just a few API calls. EQ2Decorators could get new house items from the feed the moment they appear in-game. And if a new feature is added to the game, some sites will add support for it, and some won't.</blockquote>I hope that they do. What about sites that show armor and weapons from in game? Quests? I really hope our "go to" sites go wild with this.</blockquote>So far quest data isn't in the feeds, but there is still plenty of untapped potential there. And so far the SOE folks involved with those data feeds (starting with DanKinney and Zoltaroth) have been very communicative and open to suggestions/requests in that area. For instance, they recently added Dungeon Maker data based on requests made by some of us (third party devs using those feeds). So, I'd say there is probably still more to comes from third party devs in terms of websites and applications that can tap into those feeds, and SOE will undoubtly continue adding more data fields to those feeds.

Lantis

02-17-2012, 12:11 PM

<cite>Whilhelmina@Storms wrote:</cite><blockquote>Could it be possible for you (SoE) to add back the possibility to at least "remember" the login and password on EQ2players (and on the boards)? Having to type login/password/authentificator each time is a major pain (and if anyone knows how to add them back manualy to password list on Firefox, i'll take any advice).</blockquote>Sadly, so far those requests have been answered by SOE as "these are security improvements". With which many of us disagree.Here, the only way I found to be able to once again auto-fiill the form was to start using Lastpass. I use it with Chrome, but they also have a version for Firefox. The only downside is you have to trust them in hosting your login credentials (encrypted, of course) on their own servers.Which shows another reason why the new authentication system SOE uses actually causes a reduced security, as it drives people toward "workarounds".

Rijacki

02-17-2012, 12:51 PM

<cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote>SOE is now offering a <a href="http://data.soe.com/" target="_blank">Data Feeds API</a>. Anyone can make an EQ2-powered website using this data. The beauty of having more than one site presenting EQ2Players data is, people can use and present the data in different ways. EQ2Traders could rebuild their recipe database with just a few API calls. EQ2Decorators could get new house items from the feed the moment they appear in-game. And if a new feature is added to the game, some sites will add support for it, and some won't.</blockquote>Does the data feed provide images of the items as they appear in-game or just their descriptions, i.e. the examine? If it doesn't have in-game images or the ability to get those, then it would be less useful for sites like EQ2 Traders and EQ2Decorators or any other site that needs to have the appearance of something as it looks in game when placed or worn. Just the name items is a very very very small portion of what those sites, and similar, use.

Lempo

02-17-2012, 01:02 PM

The data feeds do not have the 'dressing room' version of the images this is something that I would not expect to see anytime soon (if ever). This stuff is rendered client side, not server side.I agree that it would be nice to have it would require it's own bank of servers, otherwise the performance of delivering the data would be crippled, and that is before the bandwidth issues...

Rijacki

02-17-2012, 01:12 PM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>The data feeds do not have the 'dressing room' version of the images this is something that I would not expect to see anytime soon (if ever). This stuff is rendered client side, not server side.I agree that it would be nice to have it would require it's own bank of servers, otherwise the performance of delivering the data would be crippled, and that is before the bandwidth issues...</blockquote>That was my guess and which is why I thought it so very odd that Feldon called out those two sites specifically since they rely on a lot of 'dressing room' images. It might provide an easier way to get the links in order to get the images in game, but not in the same instant automation way Feldon suggests. Lists of item names is less useful for visual purposes.

feldon30

02-17-2012, 01:58 PM

<cite>Rijacki wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote>SOE is now offering a <a href="http://data.soe.com/" target="_blank">Data Feeds API</a>. Anyone can make an EQ2-powered website using this data. The beauty of having more than one site presenting EQ2Players data is, people can use and present the data in different ways. EQ2Traders could rebuild their recipe database with just a few API calls. EQ2Decorators could get new house items from the feed the moment they appear in-game. And if a new feature is added to the game, some sites will add support for it, and some won't.</blockquote>Does the data feed provide images of the items as they appear in-game or just their descriptions, i.e. the examine? If it doesn't have in-game images or the ability to get those, then it would be less useful for sites like EQ2 Traders and EQ2Decorators or any other site that needs to have the appearance of something as it looks in game when placed or worn. Just the name items is a very very very small portion of what those sites, and similar, use.</blockquote>Sorry if I gave the impression that the Data Feeds provide in-game screenshots of items. They don't.I think it's possible. I mean they added representative paperdoll images of every possible Beastlord warder appearance. So somewhere, they're loading the Warder into an empty zone, posing it to the default position, lighting it, and taking a picture.From the Data Feeds, you can get a list of every house- or guild hall-placeable item by searching for certain description phrases. And every recipe book you grab comes with all the items produced by it. Although you do have to do some stripping and translation of the names. For instance every spell or combat art recipe has "Essence of " or "Rune of " in the name. Strip those and search and you can display every item makeable by a recipe book.If the decorator and crafting community have some details that would make it easier to build or update websites, I can certainly ask, or they can signup to the Data Feeds API forum and ask.Just looking at item data now, I see that house items could benefit from getting minimum and maximum size attributes, and those flags for whether the item can be placed floor only, ceiling only, wall only, etc. There are many possibilities.

Rijacki

02-18-2012, 04:31 AM

<cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Rijacki wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote>SOE is now offering a <a href="http://data.soe.com/" target="_blank">Data Feeds API</a>. Anyone can make an EQ2-powered website using this data. The beauty of having more than one site presenting EQ2Players data is, people can use and present the data in different ways. EQ2Traders could rebuild their recipe database with just a few API calls. EQ2Decorators could get new house items from the feed the moment they appear in-game. And if a new feature is added to the game, some sites will add support for it, and some won't.</blockquote>Does the data feed provide images of the items as they appear in-game or just their descriptions, i.e. the examine? If it doesn't have in-game images or the ability to get those, then it would be less useful for sites like EQ2 Traders and EQ2Decorators or any other site that needs to have the appearance of something as it looks in game when placed or worn. Just the name items is a very very very small portion of what those sites, and similar, use.</blockquote>Sorry if I gave the impression that the Data Feeds provide in-game screenshots of items. They don't.I think it's possible. I mean they added representative paperdoll images of every possible Beastlord warder appearance. So somewhere, they're loading the Warder into an empty zone, posing it to the default position, lighting it, and taking a picture.From the Data Feeds, you can get a list of every house- or guild hall-placeable item by searching for certain description phrases. And every recipe book you grab comes with all the items produced by it. Although you do have to do some stripping and translation of the names. For instance every spell or combat art recipe has "Essence of " or "Rune of " in the name. Strip those and search and you can display every item makeable by a recipe book.If the decorator and crafting community have some details that would make it easier to build or update websites, I can certainly ask, or they can signup to the Data Feeds API forum and ask.Just looking at item data now, I see that house items could benefit from getting minimum and maximum size attributes, and those flags for whether the item can be placed floor only, ceiling only, wall only, etc. There are many possibilities.</blockquote>No, the impression you gave (at least the one I got) was that those sites would be able to be better (or even correctly) run if they used the data feed. But raw lists are pointless for those sites and the type of images they need are not obtained by the feed. The data feed would help them less than a site which is only concerned with stats and doesn't care at all for the appearance of an item (which isn't a wrong way to 'view' an item, just not the -same- way). For EQ2Decorators it would be even less helpful than for EQ2 Traders. I still think it's incredibly odd you called out those two sites specifically with those examples, but perhaps you don't use those sites or don't use them much so you wouldn't know.On the other hand, getting the 'dressing room' view through a feed would likely be extremely difficult. For house items less so than for gear items. Gear items would also have to somehow take into account or allow for being worn on different races and genders. House items would need to show a relative size at normal as well as max and min for re-sizing. It's even a bit more complicated than a script could handle if there were a slash command to display something in the dressing room (which doesn't show relative size or have anyway to re-size).However, having the placement type in the description would be a good addition to the examine. I'm not sure how you could convey the size at normal, max, and min, though.Believe me, I have given it a lot of thought because I think it would be grand to have a site for house items that not only showed relative normal, max, and min (i.e. not just dressing room) but also have the items rotatable to show each of the other sides (since decorators often use the 'other' sides nearly as much as the 'facing' side to make new things). If I had more hours in the day... (but I've tried to manage two screen shot intensive sites and have had it overwhelm and exceed my available time to the point I had to throw in the towel).

wullailhuit

02-18-2012, 05:11 AM

feldon30

02-21-2012, 07:42 AM

<cite>Rijacki wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Sorry if I gave the impression that the Data Feeds provide in-game screenshots of items. They don't.</blockquote>No, the impression you gave (at least the one I got) was that those sites would be able to be better (or even correctly) run if they used the data feed. But raw lists are pointless for those sites and the type of images they need are not obtained by the feed. The data feed would help them less than a site which is only concerned with stats and doesn't care at all for the appearance of an item (which isn't a wrong way to 'view' an item, just not the -same- way). For EQ2Decorators it would be even less helpful than for EQ2 Traders. I still think it's incredibly odd you called out those two sites specifically with those examples, but perhaps you don't use those sites or don't use them much so you wouldn't know.</blockquote>I'm very completely familiar with EQ2Decorators and EQ2 Traders and link to them (at least Niami's site) frequently from EQ2Wire.Niami has indicated in the past that the constant revamps and changes to recipe books over the years have made maintenance of the EQ2Traders Recipe Database into an endless exercise. Every recipe book in EQ2 is in the Data Feeds, and each recipe book item contains the list of products it creates. It wouldn't be too hard for SOE to add the ingredients/materials needed for each recipe. Then bam, you'd have a recipe database.But don't worry, I won't mention the Data Feeds and crafting websites again in the same sentence unless there's something "useful" to report.

Rijacki

02-21-2012, 12:37 PM

<cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Rijacki wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite><blockquote>Sorry if I gave the impression that the Data Feeds provide in-game screenshots of items. They don't.</blockquote>No, the impression you gave (at least the one I got) was that those sites would be able to be better (or even correctly) run if they used the data feed. But raw lists are pointless for those sites and the type of images they need are not obtained by the feed. The data feed would help them less than a site which is only concerned with stats and doesn't care at all for the appearance of an item (which isn't a wrong way to 'view' an item, just not the -same- way). For EQ2Decorators it would be even less helpful than for EQ2 Traders. I still think it's incredibly odd you called out those two sites specifically with those examples, but perhaps you don't use those sites or don't use them much so you wouldn't know.</blockquote>I'm very completely familiar with EQ2Decorators and EQ2 Traders and link to them (at least Niami's site) frequently from EQ2Wire.Niami has indicated in the past that the constant revamps and changes to recipe books over the years have made maintenance of the EQ2Traders Recipe Database into an endless exercise. Every recipe book in EQ2 is in the Data Feeds, and each recipe book item contains the list of products it creates. It wouldn't be too hard for SOE to add the ingredients/materials needed for each recipe. Then bam, you'd have a recipe database.But don't worry, I won't mention the Data Feeds and crafting websites again in the same sentence unless there's something "useful" to report.</blockquote>I agree that one -part- of EQ2 Traders could be helped by the feed (and you don't know that she is or isn't working on that).I'm not saying the feed isn't a wonderful and glorious thing or that what you, and those who you worked with, have done with EQ2U isn't fantastic, just that it's not the perfect tool for every fansite as you were characterising it.